50 Shades screenwriter Kelly Marcel on why she won’t watch the film and why Charlie Hunnam really left

Director Sam Taylor-Johnson is not the only one to have disagreed with EL James

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Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan in Fifty Shades of Grey

Catherine Gee10 June 2015 • 12:28pm

Much has been written about the on-set disagreements between the film’s director Sam Taylor-Johnson and the novel’s author EL James. Now screenwriter Kelly Marcel (Saving Mr Banks) has spoken about her own struggles.

Speaking on Bret Easton Ellis’s podcast earlier this week, Marcel – who was personally chosen for the job by James and is complimentary about her experience of working with the author – openly and extensively discussed the process of adapting the novel for screen, saying that a lot of what happened “broke her heart”.

“Erica and I immediately got on with each other, I really love Erica and she and I had the same sense of humour and we felt the same things about the books,” she said of James.

For the screenplay, however, Marcel wanted to “do something different” from the book and wrote a first draft that was considerably darker.

“I didn't want the story to be linear; I wanted it to begin at the end of the film, and for us to meet in the middle. So you start with the spanking, and you have these sort of flashes that go throughout the film,” she revealed.

Marcel also wanted to “take out the inner goddess” as well as Ana’s inner monologue, because she felt the film would be sexier with less talking.

“When I delivered that script I realised that them saying ‘you can write what you want and you can get crazy and get artistic with it’ was utter utter b-------.”

Screenwriter Kelly MarcelCredit:
Rex

The script was rejected by James so the two worked together on the rewrite, putting elements of the book back in, and ended up with a draft that was “a halfway compromise” between the novel and Marcel’s first draft.

“Ultimately Erica did have all of the control and there wasn’t ever a point where the producers could step in and said ‘no, no, we’re going with the first draft’,” she said.

When Taylor-Wood joined the project, Marcel said it was clear that there was going to be a struggle: “It's very difficult to come on as a director and to be handcuffed that way and not be able to fulfil your creative vision because there are certain restrictions on you. But at the same time, I would argue that it was very clear that that was the way it was going to be.”

But there was more to it than just the James’s own creative control. Money and merchandising played its own, very significant role in driving the project forward.

“I realised this isn’t about the movie, this is about the fact that there are Audi cars being lined up to be put out on this date, there are toys, there’s merchandise,” she said. “This movie is going to get shot no matter what is on the page as it has to be out by a certain date.”

Charlie Hunnam, star of Sons of Anarchy, had originally signed on to play Christian Grey (eventually played by Jamie Dornan) but left the project before shooting began. He later claimed to have left the film over scheduling conflicts, but Marcel told Ellis the real problem was the script. A screenwriter himself, Hunnam arrived with extensive notes for the adjustments to be made to the character, but they were also rejected.

“He said he was so sad to leave the project, because he had really, really bonded with Sam, and really liked Sam a lot,” Marcel went on. She left the project around the same time and Patrick Marber was brought in to take on any further script work; many of his changes were also dropped by James.

EL James with husband Niall LeonardCredit:
Hannibal Hanschke

When asked what she thought of the finished film, which grossed more than £300 million worldwide, Marcel also revealed that she has not, and will not, watch it. “I don't see it out of any kind of bitterness or anger or anything like that. I just don't feel like I can watch it without feeling some pain about how different it is to what I initially wrote.”

Neither Marcel nor Taylor-Johnson will be returning for the sequels and James has reportedly recruited her husband Niall Leonard to write the next film, Fifty Shades Darker, which is due to be released in 2017.